HYDERABAD, India, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) officially opened its 39th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors here Friday to overview its performance in the past year and discuss new strategies for Asia-Pacific development, focusing on poverty reduction.

    ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda, addressing the opening of the meeting, said the Asia and Pacific region has gained remarkable progress in economic development and poverty reduction in the past years, "hundreds of millions of people enjoy a better quality of life, the middle class are growing and Asia's pace of growth has soared."

    Based on recent growth rate, he said, "the number of people living on less than a dollar a day could fall to about 100 million by 2015 if the benefits of growth are equitably shared. But if growth slows and inequality increases, the number of desperately poor will still be nearly 350 million."

    Recent statistics show that in 2003, nearly 1.9 billion people in the region, one-third of the world's population, lived on less than 2 U.S. dollars a day. Among them around 620 million lived on less than a dollar a day.

    He said today's momentum of growth provides the means to extend the advantage of growth of the disadvance. Including the poor in the region's development is fundamental to sustaining growth and social stability.

    Kuroda said that to tackle the challenges, the region needs more investment in infrastructure, deeper regional cooperation and integration, private sector participation and improved governance.

    He committed that the ADB will continue to support the programs for a region free of poverty.

    Indian Prime Minister Manmoham Singh said at the opening of the two-day Board of Governors meeting that "in a globalized world, growth and progress cannot occur in isolation. Countries and international agencies must collaborate to produce welfare-enhancing synergies."

    P. Chidambaram, chairman of the Board of Governors and ADB governor for India, said that the ADB has made progress in its role in supporting the region's development and assisted the relief after major natural disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami and South Asia earthquake.

    "ADB continued to work with its member developing countries to build a firm foundation for growth and poverty reduction through many new initiatives being supported across the region," Chidambaram said.

    The ADB is a multilateral development finance institution in the Asia-Pacific region. It now groups 65 members, 47 from the region. Its Board of Governors, comprising one representative from each member, meets annually in a member country.

    The governors will in their two days of discussions look over the institutions operations in the past year, approve reform plans and work out ways for its contributions in the region's growth.

    The current ADB annual meeting of Board of Governors was joined by seminars and forums on the region's development challenges. Programs of the annual meeting started on Wednesday. Enditem